Mykola Azarov: An Investment in Knowledge, is Without a Doubt, the Best Investment in Today’s World

Friday, 27 August 2010

The following is the introductory message Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azarov gave at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on August 27, 2010 

(Reprinted in parts) 

Today’s Cabinet of Ministers meeting is exceptional.  For the first time in 19 years of independence, the government of Ukraine is deliberately and completely investigating the problems in the educational sphere.  The decisions we will make today will be in and of themselves a draft for a totally new outlook on education in Ukraine. 

There is an axiom: truly, fundamental strategic changes in society, the modernization of a country, start with changes in education.  Є A new Ukraine can only be built by people who were taught with new technologies in all spheres of life; people who think in a new way, people who have developed a high level of moral free will. 

Investing in knowledge is, without question, the best investment in today’s world.  ...It is generally recognized that the Soviet Union’s system of generalized secondary education was one of the best in the world and that secondary specialized education was specifically oriented at addressing the needs of the national economy.  In the 19 years of Ukrainian independence we have neither destroyed nor modernized this system. 

So on the one hand, the level of knowledge our young people obtain is recognized as fairly high compared to other countries of the world.  On the other hand, the world has moved far ahead of us.  Ukraine’s economy and society have changed and larger systemic changes are yet ahead, but our educational system has not evolved to accommodate these changes.  

For this reason the President and government of Ukraine have designated educational reform a goal—to improve the quality of Ukrainian society—as the basis for all other programs of systemic reform.   That is, education is a main priority for the state. 

The President of Ukraine has given us a clear assignment: over the next 10 years, no fewer than 10 Ukrainian universities are to be listed among the top 500 higher educational establishments (HEIs) of the world.  We should concentrate our efforts to meet this goal, and everyone should understand that in order to reach it changes will have to be made.  Це завдання ми з вами повинні виконати,

тому всім потрібно зрозуміти, що під лежачий камінь вода не тече. Education must become more competitive and contemporary.  Look at some figures: compared to 1990 the number of HEIs has grown 2-3 times.  We have a total of 861 HEIs with 2.6 million students. 

The result of this completely absurd growth of HEIs is the growth of a destructive disease— dilettantism.  

Suddenly in a country which has not returned her 1990 GDP, and even experienced a 15% economic decline last year, an entire army of economists, managers, marketing specialists, lawyers and psychologists has emerged.  Where did we find the necessary number of qualified lecturers to educate this quantity of specialists? 

How were students taught by this army of questionably qualified lecturers?  For what reason was this quantity of students being educating at this high level?  This situation requires us to implement standards of quality to higher education in Ukraine.  Let’s start by certifying the HEIs which meet appropriate and modern requirements for higher education.  Then let us grade the quality of education they provide by evaluating their recent graduates.  Students should be tested during their final years of study and 3-5 years or later after they’ve completed the HEI in order to assign each HEI a grade that indicates how well they prepare students.

A separate issue is inadequate financing from the state budget.  Next year we plan on substantially increasing educational spending.  The government is ready to support competitive aspects of education and projects that are elated to strengthening fundamental education.   But the scale of educational reform is too large for the state treasury to finance independently in the nearest future.  Specialties which are in demand need to create new models of cooperation between HEIs and the free market demands. 

Experience from the leading foreign universities demonstrates that educational-innovation centers successfully cooperate with hundreds of industrial businesses and commercial establishments.  For example the annual budget for eternal research at Oxford grew nearly 3 fold in 10 years; the research budget of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology grew to over US$700 million in 2009.    [End of citation] 

Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine 

http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/publish/article?art_id=243610368